Loeb: No crazy attack in Finland from me!

Reigning world champion, Sebastien Loeb has revealed that while he would love to win in Finland this weekend - one of the most famous rallies in the WRC, he won't be throwing caution to the wind.

The Frenchman, who has dominated the WRC this year, winning seven of the years nine events thus far, currently leads the race for the drivers' title by 27 points and he is determined to maintain his advantage over his nearest rival, Subaru's Petter Solberg. As such while a win would be good, to extend his run of six successive wins, a podium wouldn't that be bad either.

Loeb: No crazy attack in Finland from me!

Reigning world champion, Sebastien Loeb has revealed that while he would love to win in Finland this weekend - one of the most famous rallies in the WRC, he won't be throwing caution to the wind.

The Frenchman, who has dominated the WRC this year, winning seven of the years nine events thus far, currently leads the race for the drivers' title by 27 points and he is determined to maintain his advantage over his nearest rival, Subaru's Petter Solberg. As such while a win would be good, to extend his run of six successive wins, a podium wouldn't that be bad either.

"It's a legendary event that very few non-Finns have won and I'm on a good run at the moment. I want to win it. However, I have no intention of driving absolutely flat out," said the Citroen ace. "That's not my style. I'm not the sort of driver who goes crazy. It's not in my nature to take what I have noted as a 5th-gear corner in 6th in the belief that it'll be OK. In the last stage in Mexico, as well as in Argentina after my spin, I was close to the limit but I still kept it tidy. Scrambling round a corner doesn't suit me and it doesn't pay.

"So I will drive in my usual way, pushing as hard as I feel I can to begin with, then seeing where we stand and after that adapting ours tactics as necessary. In Finland, we will see early on whether we have a real chance of winning."

As for pre-event testing Loeb reported that it had gone well...

"I spent two days in the Jyvaskyla region, one working on a stage that was perfect for testing, then half a day on another road which began to cut up, so we moved on to a third venue," he explained.

"We started off with the fast gravel set-up which enabled us to win Rally New Zealand but with changes dialled in for the jumps and landings. We also profited from the session to test the tyres proposed by Michelin as we usually do. I was pleased with the way my Xsara handled and I am now looking forward to seeing how our work compares against the stopwatch."

Rally Finland will be Loeb - and his co-drivers', Daniel Elena's fifty event in the Xsara.

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